x, 170 pages ; 23 cm

"Ludwig Wittgenstein established a "cool" stance for philosophy: contemplating the world without meddling in it. D.Z. Phillips explores this position, focusing on its implications for philosophical authorship and the philosophical investigation of the nature of reality." "Influenced by the views of Wittgenstein and his pupil Rush Rhees, Phillips - who is one of Rhees's own students - first contrasts Wittgenstein's methods with Kierkegaard's religiously oriented dialectic. He describes the difficulty in sustaining a contemplative view of philosophy and discusses efforts to go beyond it in the work of Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Annette Baier, and Martha Nussbaum, who, in different ways, propose to make philosophy a guide to living."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references and index

Philosophical authorship: the posing of a problem -- Kierkegaard's qualitative dialectic -- Wittgenstein's philosophical method -- Rorty's lost conversations -- Cavell and the limits of acknowledgment -- Annette Baier and moral philosophy: "the arrogance of solitary intellect"? -- Nussbaum on ethics and literature: a cool place for characters? -- Trying to go nowhere: an autobiographical afterword

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews